Ondine Syndrome: Causes, description, treatment

12 August, 2017

Ondine Syndrome - so beautifully called doctors periodic cessation of breathing, which can be observed both in infants and adults.It would seem, why not?But such failures of oxygen in the body can lead not only to the development of various diseases of organs and systems, but also fatal.

Why is it called?

its name, Ondine syndrome was due to one of the oldest legends.According to her, the owner of the castle Ringshtetten - Knight Guldbrandt - lost in the cursed forest.From certain death saved him the old fisherman, giving shelter in his house.It was there that a noble knight, and fell in love with an immortal mermaid Undine - old adopted daughter.Undine also liked Guldbrandt, and she agreed to become his wife and bear his child.Immortal mermaid after the birth of his son has turned into an ordinary mortal woman.Many years have passed, years wiped Ondine former beauty and took her husband's love.Once Ondine saw her husband in the arms of a young lady - Bertaldy.What happened then, the legend does not

specify - whether Ondine drowned in the Danube itself or in this has helped her husband, throwing off a cliff.But Guldbrandta, soon decided to marry a young Bertalde, waiting for a terrible life: appearing to him, the ghost of Ondine curse perfidious traitor, forcing constantly bear in mind, even at night, how to breathe.For him, the dream became a deadly since fallen asleep, he will not be able to control your breathing and died.

Today syndrome Ondine - the informal name of stop respiratory activity during sleep.

What happens?

official scientific name of the disease - "sleep apnea."It is expressed in violation of the functions of the respiratory center and stops during sleep breathing.To express themselves, the disease can be both in infancy and in any period of human life.Brilliantly he described it as the first time a person is shown the curse of Ondine syndrome, Wisniewski - a popular Polish writer (collection of short stories "Mistress").

When the patient falls asleep, then, for whatever reasons, his body does not carry out the automatic function for the regulation of breathing, which is why a person can not breathe independently, and as a consequence, there is choking, or as it is called doctors - disritmicheskaya hypoventilation.At such moments, significantly reduced the level of oxygen entering the body, due to which inhibits the function of most organs and systems, including the brain.

Who is affected by the disease?

Unlike other diseases affecting increasingly certain age or gender groups, people at almost any age can manifest the curse of Ondine syndrome.In adults, it really is extremely rare and mainly observed in infants and children.This is explained by the fact that before the majority of cases simply did not live up to mature years, dying from respiratory failure at an early age.Other sleep apnea syndrome are more common in adult males usually stepped 40th line, and in rare cases - in women.

What happens to the body?

How affects the human body the curse of Ondine syndrome - sleep apnea?First of all, when the level of oxygen in the blood, suffering from cardio-vascular system.The heart muscle begins to contract rate increases, blood vessels shrink dramatically, thereby raising the blood pressure.In his youth, when the person is still full of energy and the body is not struck by various diseases, it all goes unnoticed.At older ages, when the body is already quite "worn" like night stress can easily trigger a stroke or heart attack, and even lead to death.

Types of sleep apnea syndrome Ondine

- is not only a violation of the respiratory function during sleep.Doctors distinguish other types of sleep apnea:

peripheral (obstructive);

central;

mixed.

Peripheral apnea is characterized by frequent, more than 15 cases per hour, stops breathing activity, the duration of which exceeds 10 seconds.With this type of apnea stops the flow of air in the upper airways, due to which air is inhaled into the lungs.As a rule, a breathing disorder is caused by a violation of the passage of nerve impulses to the pharyngeal and respiratory muscles.Central apnea

arises from the fact that the airways do not get the activating pulse from the central nervous system (CNS).Developing such a state, as a rule, as a result of severe pathological changes in the structure of the brain, caused by injury or illness.

Signs as a peripheral and central apnea observed in the so-called mixed type, which is often diagnosed in newborns and infants.

Symptoms

a result of such violations as sleep apnea (either peripheral, central or mixed type), there are frequent both conscious and unconscious awakening changed the functioning of the heart and blood vessels.All this leads to the development of the following symptoms:

day:

- high fatigue;

- constant feeling of fatigue and lack of strength;

- morning headaches;

- reduced ability to concentrate and memory;

- emotional instability.

Night:

- trouble falling asleep and insomnia;

- frequent awakening;

- sweating;

- frequent urination.

In addition to these symptoms, as damage to other organs and systems, there will be new signs of disturbances in the activity of the organism.

First Cause

Until the second half of the last century, scientists could not figure out what is the curse of Ondine syndrome, its causes were not clear and mysterious.No one could answer the question of why perfectly healthy babies and boys, adult men and women suddenly died in her sleep from respiratory failure.Only in the early 60-ies of XX century, researchers R. Mitchell and George. Sevringausu it was found that this disease is a form of sleep apnea.This discovery has helped scientists to make patient who has lost the automatic control of breathing as a result of severe brain damage.Just as patients with Ondine's syndrome, the patient should go to sleep, how to monitor respiratory function, he could not and as a result started to choke.However, these studies have not been able to answer the question of what causes these disorders in ordinary people.

only in the XXI century, the French researchers were able to determine the cause of the disease.Through a series of experiments, researchers found that for respiratory arrest in animals is responsible gene Thox2B.Further selected studies of people suffering from the syndrome Ondine, confirmed the presence of the same gene and have.Another important finding was that the mutation is not inherited and occurs during embryonic development.

curse of Ondine syndrome: treatment

a long time, except for the connection of sick people at night to control breathing apparatus, able to resist the disease was not.In the past few years in several European countries, such as Sweden, Germany and some others, it has become implanted in the brain, specifically in the phrenic nerve, patients with the syndrome Ondine special devices, which "include" breath when stopped.According to the observations of the operated patients, any breathing problems in the night and in the daytime they are no longer experiencing.